


Mending A Broken Bridge

by WhatTheHellDoIDo



Series: A needed Ishimaru and Togami friendship [1]
Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, Dangan Ronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Genre: Adorable Ishimaru Kiyotaka, Alternate Universe - Non-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Developing Friendships, Dork Ishimaru Kiyotaka, Emotional Hurt, Fluff, Friendship, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, Light Angst, Male Friendship, My First AO3 Post, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Pre-Despair (Dangan Ronpa), Togami Byakuya Being An Asshole, Togami Byakuya-Centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-04
Updated: 2019-05-04
Packaged: 2020-02-23 20:32:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18709471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WhatTheHellDoIDo/pseuds/WhatTheHellDoIDo
Summary: Although, he hates to admit it, Byakuya Togami can't fight the fact that he and the loud Moral Compass may have some things in common.(Mondo is only really mentioned in this and Togami is only an asshole in the beginning but an asshole nonetheless (I found it quite difficult writing him, so I'm sorry in advance))





	Mending A Broken Bridge

"The fact that such a simple delinquent stereotype like Oowada hasn't been eradicated from the education system is quite disappointing. Wouldn't you agree?" Togami lightly scoffed soon after Oowada himself had left the room. The question itself was directed at the slightly stunted Moral Compass who was a few feet away from him and was almost hidden by a pile of textbooks in front of him. 

 

This of course wasn't the first time Togami noticed Ishimaru's presence in the library, in fact Togami had seen him there every weekend night since he joined Hopes Peak Academy (which at the time felt like one of his few mistakes) but it was the first time either had bothered to attempt anything close to a conversation (it was almost ironic that it was Togami out of the two who started it). He originally believed that Ishimaru would be a bother to him but it turned out that the usual loud and irritating boy was completely silent while studying. He was…Bearable at best. 

 

However, this was the first time he had dragged along the even more irritating gang leader of a best friend (or Kyoudai as he seemed to refer to him as). This was less than something he was willing to endure as the hot tempered boy was complaining almost constantly and Togami was two seconds away from kicking the delinquent out. Fortunately, he didn't have to bother about it as Oowada quickly excused himself by getting a text from one of his fellow troublemakers that they needed his assistance. 

 

"Pardon?" The Hall Monitors face scrunched up in amusing and ignorant confusion. 

 

"It just amuses me that you, the Ultimate Moral Compass, would excuse the actions of and even befriend a low life criminal like Oowada. You can't even be a "One-Trick-Pony" right."

 

Ishimaru began to stand up from the wooden chair in the corner of the room and walked towards Togami who didn't think he needed to bother standing up to confront him. Ishimaru spoke just as loud as usual, suddenly oblivious to the fact he was in a library (although the fact that it was very eight in the evening meant that there weren't any other students there that they could bother)

"Just because Mondo is my friend doesn't mean that I excuse his actions nor do I treat him differently because of it!" 

 

Despite Ishimaru's serious tone, Togami's face morphed into a smirked as he simply responded "But isn't it your "duty" to discipline those out of line and assist them to becoming better people in the end? That is the only reason you didn't need to work hard to get a place here. You just needed to shout a typical speech and occasionally make sure no one misbehaves. You are easily replaceable if you don't do your job right."

 

That clearly struck a chord with Ishimaru.

 

"That is untrue! I have helped Oowada and I have earn-" 

 

"Of course you probably didn't notice through your constant studying sessions. Making an effort to get somewhere you clearly don't belong is pointless."

 

Ishimaru seemed angry to enough to take Togami on then and there. He even showed some of the obvious signs, his hands were clenching and his posture was impossibly rigid and his next few words were spat out with bitterness. 

"You are a genius."

 

This statement had made Togami recoil slightly. How could a title he wore with pride throughout his life be said in a hateful manner? Ishimaru quickly cleared that up. 

 

"You believe you are above all of us because of your intelligence, so you believe you somehow earned it and that you have the right to no longer make an effort to a such an inhumane point that you can't even fathom the concept of it!" With every word the red flame in Ishimaru's eyes burned even stronger, the fire in his soul truly revealing itself. Due to this, Togami had felt a similar rage building up at the idea that he didn't make the effort to belong there and was ready to stand up to confront the clearly dense Moral Compass. This fire was soon somehow distinguished by a few tears welling up in the Moral Compasses eyes as he looked down in a feeble attempt to hide them. The last part of his rant was weakened and his voice was more soft than Togami would have ever imagined. 

 

"And you'll never know how lucky you were to have it until you fall". The ending part was slightly muffled by light spouts of crying. 

 

Togami was to put it simply: stunned. He tried to retaliate but his words were quiet and, while certainly not soft, did not hold the usual cold tone in his voice. 

 

"I earned my right to be here." Ishimaru still refused to look him in the eyes. "I was the runt in a litter of fifteen. The idea was for the leader of the corporation to have as many hiers as possible from many different people. That's what we were viewed as perspective until my father picked one of us. After working through blood, sweat and tears, I had won. I had taken the crown. Which was something that had never happened to the family's runt before. The rest of my siblings were then killed."

That last statement alone was enough to make Ishimaru's head rapidly lift up, a couple of stray tears still lingering on his features. 

 

"T-they were murdered?" That wasn't exactly what Togami meant but he could see why Ishimaru jumped to that conclusion. 

 

"No. But to be exiled from your "family" is pretty much the same as death."

 

"Were you close to your family?" Ishimaru sat down on the chair next to Togami, clearly hooked onto Togami's experience, but that was still a question he had not expected to be asked. 

 

"Not really. We didn't have the time nor could we afford to. They were either someone I would have to defeat or someone who I would ultimately decide my fate unless I worked to get them in my favour. The closest I was to anyone there was my butler Aloysius Pennyworth."

 

Togami stood up to leave, already sharing more then he would've wanted to in almost any imagine able scenario. That was until Ishimaru wrapped both his hands around his wrist and forcefully dragged him back onto the chair, only narrowly making it onto the chair itself. 

 

"Why the hell did you do that!?" Togami shouted both out of anger and marginally in shock that Ishimaru was that strong. Togami's eyes narrowed even further when he noticed that Ishimaru was crying even harder than before but his face seemed lit up with almost too much emotion to pin down. His face didn't light up in same way Fukawa's did when around him, but instead it seemed almost in…. Admiration. 

 

"Thank you for opening up to me!" Ishimaru blurted out, "How could I have been so close minded that I couldn't have been bothered to learn about you before making up my own mind?!" Despite the self-deprecating comment, Ishimaru held a rare bright smile. However, his ever present grip on Togami's right wrist only grew stronger until the Hall Monitor noticed it was becoming slightly sore and immediately let go, mumbling out a soft apology as Togami begun to rub his stinging wrist. 

 

"You seemed to go into a lot of distinctive detail on your rant, so I'd have to assume you knew someone like that. Someone who I reminded you of?" Togami had regained his composure and was currently fiddling with his glasses. Ishimaru's face sunk into a pitiful frown as he brought his hand up to face, clearly internally debating on whether or not to disclose some piece of information to the Affluent Progeny. 

 

"It was only for a brief moment, but you did remind me of someone I respect. But also someone I hate." Despite usually being completely blunt and honest in the face of conflict, the Hall Monitors statement was undeniably vague. 

 

"Toranosuke Ishimaru. I assume you know who that is." It wasn't a question. It was a clean and cut statement. Ishimaru already proved to not be as blatantly 2 dimensional and naive as he had previously believed. 

 

"He was my grandfather." It should've been obvious from the start that the two held some sort of correlation, however Ishimaru hardly looked anything like his charismatic grandfather, at least from the videos he saw growing up. 

 

Togami had been forced to learn about him throughout his life. He was able to reach Prime Minister with only a highschool degree from and was the previous Ultimate Manager at Hopes Peak. However, after only a few months in office, the public opinion of him changed from a large amount of praise to almost widespread criticism and suspicion. Afterwards he fell into a massive corruption scandal and was forced to back down from the office and his business fell to ruin. 

 

"He was considered by everyone around him throughout his life as a "Genius". Everything he did, he did without any actual effort, and so he never truly knew failure. Because of this, he quickly became more self-centered and arrogant over his talent, which caused him to fall even faster then he had risen. I was only just starting school when the scandal broke the news, I wasn't old enough to comprehend how that would change how I would perceive everyone around me."

 

"Is that why you spoke so negatively of me being a genius earlier?" He was to be honest quite curious about how that experience might have changed him into the person he was then, if you could even call him a person at that point. 

 

"There is nothing more tragic in life than a genius who has fallen. So I spent every ounce of effort I had in every single day to work to become something better than him. To become someone who can restore my family's Name. Due to this, I lost the vast majority of my childhood to work and studying. So because of my character and the fact that I was isolated throughout my life both for being hated as an Ishimaru and isolating myself with my school work, I didn't have anyone to call a friend… At-at least not until I met Mondo."

 

This was probably the most intrigued he had been with anyone at Hopes Peak. After all, he found the large majority of the population there to be weak minded, petty and boring so no one was exactly willing to bare their souls to him like Ishimaru did. 

 

"By the fact that you sacrificed so much to restore your family's name, you must be quite close to them?" He wasn't exactly sure how other families "worked", to put it lightly. And while his family's method was more efficient, it was definitely devoid of much companionship and was certainly not the norm. 

 

"I don't hear much about my mother nowadays but my father was always my personal anchor. After my Grandfather's demise, he left us with an unimaginable amount of debt that threw us straight into poverty. My father was part of the Police force at the time and had to work almost constantly to keep me alive, without him I don't know what would've happened to me. Of course our family is still hated so my father barely held onto his job because the general public was worried about letting the son of an infamous criminal into the legal force." Ishimaru spoke of his father with overwhelming pride, something that (while he would never openly admit to it) made Togami slightly jealous as he could only be prideful over his family's performance and not them as people. After noticing Togami staring at him, Ishimaru swiftly recoiled back into his pitiful frown. 

"I'm sorry that you had to bear through my pathetic ramblings." Ishimaru sighed, placing his knuckle under his chin. 

"It was hardly pathetic. Fukawa's ramblings are pathetic. In them she just talks without saying anything meaningful or remotely sane. Yours on the other hand, explain a lot about your motivations and personality which made me think that on this rare occasion… I was wrong to judge you so harshly and, while I can barely picture it, I believe I would've turned out like you if I was put under those circumstances."

 

Ishimaru seemed almost shocked to have someone say anything like that to him. "Thank you, Professor!" 

 

Togami was puzzled by the Hall Monitors word choice and decided to question him about it. 

"P-professor?!" 

 

Ishimaru's expression made it appear like he was explaining something that was simple and of common knowledge. "You taught me something I didn't know before and I was taught that those who teach you something should be given an appropriate title!"

 

"While I admit my presence can hold some teachable moments, what could I have taught you from this?" 

Ishimaru, ever the spitfire, immediately responded with "You taught me about yourself. And to be honest, you don't seem much like the sharing sort". 

 

He had to admit, being referred to as "Professor Togami" was quite nice, it just seemed… Out of place. "Referring to me as Professor seems quite peculiar and if you insisted upon using a superior term I would be most favourable towards "Sir". However, I guess "Professor Togami" is… Tolerable. "

 

Ishimaru's expression immediately switched to relief and joy with a shy smile that was honestly… Very adorable (although Byakuya would rather die than to openly admit to it). 

Ishimaru then looked down at this watch which distinctively read 09:42pm. They had been talking for over an hour! Ishimaru quickly explained how he needed to get back to his form before ten, like the rules state, and put all his revision equipment into his bag and was about to head out the door after saying goodbye to the Affluent Progeny when the Affluent Progeny himself said his own personal goodbye. 

 

"I expect to see you here next time, Kiyotaka," 

Togami couldn't help but notice Ishimaru rolling his eyes and smirking to himself as he finished off his ending statement "WITHOUT Oowada" . 

 

"I'm sure he will be glad to hear that! By the way can call me Taka if you'd like!" And Taka closed the door behind him. And, just like he had commanded, Ishimaru did return the next weekend WITHOUT Oowada. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hey, I created this mess after noticing how many overlaying themes there in both Byakuya Togami's free time events and Kiyotaka Ishimaru's. This wouldn't have bothered me originally if I there were any part of the fandom that included it in their fanfiction. So yeahhhhhhhhhh this is my first time, so I'm sorry if this is really just a pile of random things crammed together. Nonetheless, I am probably still going to make this into a series.


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